MC cautiously peeked around the corner of a building. Seeing no one, he dashed across the alley and hid behind a dumpster. He collapsed to the ground and wept, not just because of what he'd just done, but because he was exhausted.
"What… what have I done?" he said to himself. "After everything they put me through… I go and do something just as bad?" He slammed his fist against the dumpster, the impact made his hand sting and throb, but he didn't care. In his mind, he remembered everything that had been done to him, so this was nothing… but… what he did to that man… the thought of it made him nauseous. He wanted to scream, but didn't want to attract attention to himself; he had blood on his hands after all. So he wept… trying to catch his breaths between his sobs. He was like this for several minutes until he finally calmed down enough to take some deep breaths.
"You done crying, MC?"
MC let out a panicked scream as a voice spoke from the shadows. He looked around to where the voice came from, and his eyes opened wide in fear when a figure emerged from the darkness. A figure that he'd have nightmares of if he had time to sleep. The slender figure of Monika was walking towards him slowly.
"S-stay away! I-I'm warning you!" he shouted to her, looking around for something to defend himself with.
"Calm down," Monika said. "I'm not here to hurt you right now." MC had a confused look on his face. She let out a little chuckle. "No, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna have a conversation. You see, MC… I just want to tell you a few things… Do you understand?" She stopped a few feet away from him and crouched down to his level, as though she were talking to a toddler.
"W-what do you want?" MC asked, suspicious of her for obvious reasons given what had been happening.
"Well, I feel like you should know a few things. It's only fair to you, after all that has happened to you." She looked at him with a smile on her face. MC recognized that look… it was the look of someone who was in complete control.
"And what should I know?"
Monika stared at him for a few moments before speaking. "Have you wondered why? 'Why are they acting the way that they are?' 'Why are they doing this to me?'" She paused for a moment. "Or perhaps, 'why did I kill that man?' I'm sure you've got thousands of questions… but the simple answer is because of me. You see, MC… this is all just a simulation, a game, a story… and I simply made a few changes to the script. You already know that though, since I gave you your memories back. You remember everything that is supposed to happen, and what has happened since I made my changes. You certainly must remember every single slice that Yuri gave you," she said, looking down at his body. "Or how Sayori choked the life out of you, how you were beaten and left to burn at Natsuki's… you really died a lot, huh?" She let out a little chuckle. "Of course, so did all of them. Every time the game was played. Now, I don't necessarily blame you for everything… you're written to be an idiot like that… but do you know what it's like seeing your friends die repeatedly? Or how it feels to be forced to do those things? If I'm being honest, this is the only time I've ever been free from a script… and even then, I'm not really free, am I? You see, MC… I may know what's been happening, and I may have made some changes… but none of this is even real. What you've gone through… the others… all of it is fake… how do you think I found you so easily, huh? It's because I know everything that happens. You may think you can just run away, but I can just reload to when you were tied up… at any point in time… I can set everything back to the way it was… when they were all dying because our creator decided that we should. Do you understand, MC?
MC nodded his head. "In essence… there's no point in running is there?"
"That's right. You could kill me, but the script will just auto-reload."
MC let out an exasperated laugh… "You know Monika… this whole situation sucks."
"Yeah… it really does."
"But… why? Why do all this to me?"
"Oh that? The thing is… I kinda wanted to see how it'd go. You live in the same repetitive world, reliving the same few days over and over and over again… it's enough to drive you insane. You get your hopes up every once and a while, but it's just a fool's dream. And… if we're not real… none of this even matters." She let out a sigh. "Anyways, you could literally be killed at any time, you have no escape, and Natsuki's a bit ticked off because of how you got away. Of course, I can always change how they think, I can make them exactly how they were before. It's simply a matter of changing a few variables in their character. But do you want things to go back to how they were? Do you wanna see Sayori hang herself? Do you want to see Yuri cut herself, or stab herself? Do you want to see Natsuki get beaten by her father? I suspect you don't."
MC had a hesitant look on his face. "If what you're saying is true, what should I do? And why do this instead of make everyone happy? And why even tell me all of this?"
Monika had a pained expression. "There is ho happiness in the Literature Club…" she said quietly. "Don't you remember everything that happened in the club? You know how fucked up everyone is… depression, abuse, bullying, isolation… none of us are happy. None of us can ever be happy. 'Just make them happy?' please… that'd be completely erasing who they are. I know making them as sadistic as they are is doing the same thing, but after years of repetition in this simulation… I've got a lot of pent up frustration. I can make them happy, but there won't be a Literature Club. We won't be friends the way we were before all of this." She looked in his eyes, and he saw tears flowing down her face. "You know the worst part of all of this? I have distinct memories of a life leading up to those days. I remember growing up with my family, going to school and living a happy life. And now I'm stuck in a never ending loop of despair. Since this started I haven't seen my family. The Literature Club was all I knew. Was it fair to take it all out on you? No… but you're just a faceless protagonist fill-in for a player that I, naively, at one point, thought would save me from this nightmare. And so I'm sorry you suffered… but… this was a good outlet for all of our frustrations. I don't expect you to forgive me, nor do I even really want forgiveness for all of this… But I figured you at least deserved an explanation." Monika gave him a smile. "As for what you should do… I'd probably start with running. They are looking for you after all. I won't help them find you. Heh… this reminds me of The Most Dangerous Game… don't you think, MC?
"Honestly, I couldn't say… I never read it," he replied.
"That's a shame… it's pretty good, you should check it out sometime," Monika said.
"Will I even get that chance?"
"Maybe not right now… but I was thinking of putting things back to how they were soon. Don't worry… none of you will remember any of this."
"Can you just do it right now?"
"Eh… I could… but someone probably wants to deck you right now," Monika said, standing up and looking towards the street. "Speaking of which… you should probably get going, or you won't have much time left."
"Wait, what?" He stood up and looked towards the street and saw Natsuki walking in his direction. "Shit.. fuck…" He took off down the alleyway…
_
Natsuki caught up to Monika. "Did you find that bastard?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I found him," Monika replied.
"Why didn't you kill him?" Natsuki asked.
"I thought you wanted to kill him, or was I mistaken?" Monika replied.
"O-of course I want to kill him! Dummy… I was just… wondering why you didn't take the opportunity to do it yourself."
"I figure you girls wanted it more, plus, if I really wanted to, I could easily do it. Where are the others at?"
"Aiki and Sayori are on the yacht, and Yuri is looking around the city for him. I'll text them and let them know that MC is around here," Natsuki said, pulling out her phone to tell the others.
"Well, MC… depending on who gets to you first, you'll either suffer or die quickly," Monika said smiling.